~ There's no metaphysics on Earth like dessert.

Tag Archives: Cake

I am one of those people who associates cake with occasions: birthdays, weddings, office parties. I am not one of those people who simply eats cake because it’s a Sunday night and why not? However, I have been trying to adopt more of a, “You can become anything you set your heart on,” mentality this year, so if I want to become a cake-anytime person, then, dammit, that’s what I’ll strive to be.

So when I was on the Upper West Side on a Sunday evening, in need of a pick-me-up after sitting through three hours of Lincoln, I thought, “I can be that person! The person who eats cake whenever she wants.” So I marched myself over to Sugar and Plumm, Pichet Ong’s vaunted new bistro/bakery, for the very first time and bought myself a slice of cake.

When superfluously buying oneself cake, moderation should not play a role in the decision-making process. As I suspected (and hoped), the cakes on offer at Sugar and Plumm were decidedly excessive. But which to choose? If all decisions were so difficult, whole nations would crumble due to indecisiveness and neglect.

Eventually, after much deliberation, I chose the chocolate caramel cake.

In the summer, the city can be a lot to take. The heat. The sweaty bodies. The smells. Oh, the smells. It’s with good reason that so many people vacate their overcrowded, under-air conditioned apartments in the months of June, July, and August and head to the Hamptons, Fire Island, or anyplace that is cooler, cleaner, and has some proximity to a beach.

Thanks to a slew of parties and appointments (and the financial peaks of high season rentals), I was one of those sad folks stuck trying to make the best of a New York summer. And you know what? It wasn’t so bad. Especially when I made use of your unlimited MetroCard to go on some local day trips.

My boyfriend, N., recently had the idea of exploring an area of the city that, until then, I had only equated with my grandmother’s assisted living home: Riverdale.

Mimi’s Hummus in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn has some of the creamiest, earthiest hummus in New York City. This is not a debatable fact. If you’ve been enjoying the goods at places like Hummus Kitchen and Hummus Place, well, you’ve been doing fine because those joints put on a fine hummus show. But Mimi’s is where it’s at. And it’s not just the hummus that is delicious. Mimi’s knows how to work a vegetable like few other reasonably priced restaurants. Eggplant “caviar” under a pool of honey (an improbable but spectacular combination), a cauliflower salad dressed liberally with tahini and parsley… I could go on, but let’s cut to the important stuff.